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Diabolical Death of Agnes Prest

Dan Graves, MSL

The city of Exeter in southwestern England existed even before the
Roman conquest as the chief settlement of the Dumnonii tribe. The
Anglo-Saxons captured it in when they took the British isles and
William the Conqueror captured it in the 11th century. Situated in the
county of Devon, its main tourist attraction is its beautiful
cathedral.

Another site worth visiting, which few tourists know about, is the
obelisk erected in 1909 as a memorial to two individuals, Thomas Benet
and Agnes Prest, known as the Exeter Martyrs. Thomas Benet died January
10, 1531.

Agnes was originally from Cornwall, but lived for a while in Exeter
as a servant. Later she returned to Cornwall and married a man who
lived in Launceton. They made their living spinning. Agnes was known to
be cheerful, patient, sober and never idle. Although uneducated, she
knew the Bible almost by heart. The chief sadness in her life was the
difference in religion between herself and her husband. He was a Roman
Catholic and she a Protestant. They tried hard to convert each other.
The children were brought up Catholic. At last, Agnes left home and
stayed with friends, trying to support herself by spinning. However,
she missed her family and returned home. There she was greeted by the
hostility of her husband and friends. They led her to the parish priest
and accused her of heresy. She was arrested and spent several months in
the Launceton jail.

Bishop Touberville interrogated her. The chief point of contention
was Agnes's reluctance to accept belief in the real presence of Christ
in the Eucharist. Nevertheless, the bishop gave her a month's parole
and she went to work as a servant in the home of the keeper of the
Bishop's prison. Although she had freedom to walk about, she was
continually approached by the clergy to change her mind. She stood firm
in her Protestant beliefs. One day, after she was overheard expressing
criticism of statues, the authorities returned her to prison.

Agnes was tried at the Guildhall before John Petre, Mayor of Exeter,
in the presence of the bishop. She could not be moved from her beliefs.
Sentence of death was issued. It is hard for us to understand the
sentences of those days. Strange and brutal though it seems to us
today, burning at the stake for one's religious beliefs was perpetuated
into the seventeenth century.

No one knows the exact spot where Agnes was burned, but it is said
she was led outside the city walls to Southernhay by the Sheriff and
city officials. Her last words on this day, August
15, 1557, were, "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith
Christ. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live, and he that believeth in Me shall never die."

Bibliography:

Avery, Elroy McKendree. History of the United States and its
People. Cleveland: Burrows Bros, 1904. Source of the image.